The company’s first-ever year-over-year decline in advertising revenue is revealed in Meta’s most recent earnings report, indicating a downward trend that it expects to continue.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, claims during an investor conference call that a general economic slowdown is to blame for his company failing to meet expectations.
“… We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business. It’s always hard to predict how deep or how long these cycles will be, but I’d say that the situation seems worse than it did a quarter ago.” Zuckerberg said.
Along with a sluggish economy, Apple’s privacy settings are a problem for Meta.
The decline in revenue growth that began when Apple introduced the option for users to ask apps not to track their data is only being accelerated by the current economic climate. Since Meta doesn’t have access to as much information about users, people see less relevant ads in their feeds as a result.
The advertising division at Meta is in an even worse situation as a result, and Zuckerberg is warning investors to anticipate further revenue declines in the coming quarter.